Social Interaction Terms

 By  Akhmad Zamroni

Source: Foto Akhmad Zamroni

Not all meetings between individuals or between groups are called interactions. A meeting, contact, or relationship between two parties that meet certain conditions is classified as an interaction. This shows, social interaction requires a number of certain requirements.

Social interaction will not occur if two conditions are not met. According to Soerjono Soekanto (2005: 64), two conditions for the occurrence of social interaction are social contact and communication. These two conditions will be discussed in more detail.

A.   Social Contact

What is social contact? What kind of event is classified as social contact? What are the characteristics of social contact? What and what social contacts have you had or frequently had?

The word contact comes from the Latin con or cum and tango. The word con or cum means 'together', while tango means 'to touch'. Thus, literally, contact means "touching together".

Physically, contact will occur if there is physical or physical connection. However, as a social phenomenon, contact does not have to and does not necessarily mean 'physical contact', such as shaking hands, holding hands, hugging, hugging, wrestling, fighting, or fist fights. In the context of social interaction, contact can also mean making relationships in the form of "not physically touching". Activities without physical contact, such as chatting on the phone and exchanging ideas via cellphone short messages (SMS), can also include contact. In fact, according to Kingsley Davis (in Soekanto, 2005: 65), physical touch does not need to be the main condition for contact.

Thus, social contact can occur with or without physical contact. Social contact in the form of physical relationships, for example, two people who meet greet each other and shake hands. Social contact in the form of no physical connection, for example, two people communicate by mail via post or electronic mail (e-mail) on the internet.

Based on the perpetrator, social contact can be divided into contact between individuals, contact between individuals and groups, and contact between groups.

1.   An example of social contact between individuals is a vocational school student talking to one of his teachers.

2.   An example of social contact between individuals and groups is a company director speaking on the pulpit to provide work motivation to his subordinate employees.

3.   An example of social contact between groups is a book publishing company giving a book printing job order to a printing company.

As for social contact itself has several characteristics. Social contact can be positive and negative, it can also be primary and secondary. The following is a further explanation of the four characteristics in question.

1.   Social contact is positive when it results in cooperation (cooperation). For example, OSIS from two high schools held joint social service activities in areas stricken by natural disasters.

2.   Social contact is negative when it results in conflict. For example, a number of workers in a garment company went on strike and complained against the directors of the company where they worked with the Ministry of Manpower due to the low monthly wages they received and the arbitrariness and inhumanity of the board of directors in imposing working hours.

3.  Social contact is primary if in making contact, the perpetrators meet face to face. For example, a speaker makes a presentation and questions and answers in front of an audience at a seminar.

4.   Social contact is secondary if in making contact, the perpetrators use certain intermediaries. For example, a bank director exchanges ideas with one of his managers over the phone to improve service to customers.

From the following understanding, the examples of contact presented are clear that social contact is a condition for social interaction. Without contact, social interaction will not occur. If a relationship between two individuals or two groups is not characterized by reciprocal actions that influence each other - in the sense that there is no contact - then the relationship does not lead to or does not include social interaction.

B.   Communication

In terms of language, communication means sending and receiving messages between two or more people so that the message in question can be understood (Big Indonesian Dictionary, 2002: 585). As for sociologically, communication is defined as the process of delivering messages, ideas, or desires from one party to another to form a common understanding (Purwito, 2005: 56). The substance of communication, both semantically and linguistically as well as sociologically, is the delivery or delivery of messages between two parties which causes them to obtain relatively the same understanding of something.

In simple terms, communication can also be defined as a relationship or relationship. In communication, there are five defining elements, namely communicators, communicants, messages, media, and effects. The explanation of the five is as follows.

1.   Communicator is a person or group of people who convey or transmit messages, feelings, opinions, ideas, or thoughts to other people or groups.

2.   A communicant is a person or group of people who receive messages, feelings, opinions, or thoughts from other parties.

3.   Message is something or something conveyed by the communicator. Messages can be in the form of data, information, instructions, thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

4.   Media is a means or tool used to convey messages. Communication media can be in the form of spoken, written, pictures, newspapers, telephone, and so on.

5.   Effects are changes that occur to the communicant after receiving a message from the communicator.

Communication is a prerequisite for social interaction because communication greatly determines the emergence of relationships between individuals and individuals, between individuals and groups, or between groups and groups in community life. Communication allows the delivery and reception of messages so that conversation, dialogue, discussion, exchange of information, exchange of ideas, and so on occurs. From here emerge various reciprocal relationships between two or several parties in various forms.

Communication is a complementary contact for social interactions. Without communication, contact will not lead to social interaction. Two people can make contact, but if they both do not complete it with communication, they can be said to have not interacted. For example, an Indonesian woman meets and shakes hands with a Japanese woman, then the Indonesian woman greets and speaks in Indonesian, even though the Japanese woman doesn't understand Indonesian at all so she doesn't understand messages (feelings, thoughts, or information) delivered by the Indonesian woman. In this example, contact (as the first condition for interaction) has occurred, but because one of the parties does not understand the other's conversation, no communication takes place and thus social interaction does not occur.

From these descriptions and examples, it can be seen that communication plays a crucial role in social interaction. With communication, the feelings, thoughts, desires, attitudes, or ideas of a person or group can be known by other people or groups. This then becomes the material to determine the reactions, responses, or actions that will and need to be done to provide a response.

As a determinant of social interaction, communication can take place in various forms or models. At least, there are four communication models that usually occur in social interactions. The four forms or models of communication are unidirectional communication, two-way communication, direct communication, and indirect communication.

1.   One-way or one-way communication is communication that takes place only from the communicator to the communicant; in a sense, the active communicator fully holds the conversation, while the communicant only passively accepts (listens) without giving feedback. For example, a kiai gives a sermon in front of a number of Muslims in a Friday prayer assembly or a state official addresses the people on television.

2.   Two-way communication is communication in which both the communicator and the communicant are active and give and respond to messages. For example, price bargaining between a seller and a buyer at a traditional market or a dialogue between a resource person and a farmer in a face-to-face activity to discuss the issue of high fertilizer prices.

3.  Direct communication is communication in which the communicator and the communicant communicate directly, either face to face or face to face (face to face) or at a distance using communication tools or media (telephone, hanphone, teleconference, HT, internet , etc). For example, two students talk to discuss plans to carry out an assignment given by a lecturer or a retailer who orders goods to a wholesaler by telephone.

4.   Indirect communication is communication in which the delivery and reception of messages and responses to messages by communicators and communicants is carried out through third party intermediaries. For example, a dispute between the board of directors of a company and employees / laborers is resolved through a dialogue initiated and brokered by the Ministry of Manpower or two teenagers greeting each other through another teenager as a third party.